Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

Nyango Star, Japan’s cat-apple mascot drummer

Watch more with these video collections:

Nyango Star (にゃんごすたー) is a giant Japanese mascot cat-fruit hybrid whose ability to slay the drums has become an internet sensation. In the updated video above, Nyango Star plays Anpanman’s March, the theme song to an animated show called Soreike! Anpanman.

The character performs around Japan as a mascot for the city of Kuroishi in Aomori Prefecture, a region known for their apples. According to the Nyango Star website, our hero is part cat, part apple, and all metal. And if you think the name ‘Nyango Star’ sounds a bit like drummer Ringo Starr, you’d be right. Ringo (りんご) means ‘apple’ in Japanese. Nyan (にゃん) is the Japanese onomatopoeia for ‘meow’.

nyango cat-apple drummer

See another performance in this Yamaha Music Foundation promo.

Next: More Japan and a T-Rex dancing ballet. Plus, watch more drum videos, including Max Roach on the hi-hat, Monster Tubulum, Invisible Drum Kit, cdza’s Intro to Drums, the great Viola Smith, and Tom Tom Magazine‘s Oral History of Female Drummers.

h/t @ThatEricAlper.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

Zen Snow Monkeys (Japanese macaques) in Japan’s hot springs

Rion Nakaya

Yukino-otani, the huge snow walls of the Tateyama Snow Corridor

Rion Nakaya

Wrecking Crew Orchestra and their glowing dance costumes

Rion Nakaya

Viola Smith Drums with Frances Carroll & Her Coquettes (1939)

Rion Nakaya

The Wikidrummer: No artificial reverb added

Rion Nakaya

The Story Behind Japan’s Bathing Monkeys – ScienceTake

Rion Nakaya

The Secret Story of Toys: Action-figure character sculptors

Rion Nakaya

The map of notes on a steel pan drum

Rion Nakaya

The Lion King’s animal costumes behind-the-scenes

Rion Nakaya